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This Week’s Most Exquisite TV Moment

March 5-11
“What Now?” | This is Us

It was once again a fantastic week on television starting with Once Upon A Time‘s mid season premiere. A fascinating Madam Secretary. A charming When Calls the Heart. An intriguingly heartbreaking episode of The Flash. An incredibly strong season premiere for The Americans. And a wonderfully written Black-ish. But unsurprisingly, it was This is Uswhich left the biggest impression.

When Beth first tells Randall how much she misses William and how broken she is because she never got closure, it was the unexpected reveal that brought on the most waterworks. And as if the written words in her speech wasn’t enough to showcase the amount of grief she’s left with, Susan Kelechi Watson sprinkled so much heart into her performance, it broke me.

As I’d mentioned in our review: “The ever-present tinge of grief in Watson’s expression as she went through the mail was perfect for what was in store. So when she saw the postcard from Memphis in which William referred to her as the daughter he never had, you felt that closure and innate happiness find her. You knew she’d be okay. You knew that in the same way Randall felt his presence through the ducks, Beth felt it through the postcard. And somehow, you knew that everything would be okay.”

Beth needed this. She needed the post card for closure. And as we heard Williams voice as she read it, you couldn’t help but tear up. You couldn’t help but be filled with the serenity in knowing that this would heal Beth in a way nothing else could. This little reminder of how much William loved her would mean the absolute world. It’s proof of the fact that he loved her just as much as she loved him. In the short amount of time they spent together, their bond was strenghted in a rare, life changing kind of way. And Watson’s organic display of the whirlwind of emotions this brought Beth was stunning.